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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25822093">Blood In the Water</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittywiz/pseuds/kittywiz'>kittywiz</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Little Mermaid - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:02:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>535</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25822093</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kittywiz/pseuds/kittywiz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The dark and the cold is a place for wounds to fester.</p><p>And for dreams to die.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Blood In the Water</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ursula is old, older than most sea creatures and older than Triton even when he sits on the throne, holding more power in that trident of his than she has acquired in a hundred years of dark sorcery.</p><p>The People of the Sea forget the days where they weren't humanoid, where their upper body wasn't arms or a mouth or a pair of hands with five fingers wiggling at their ends.</p><p>And in doing so they forget the price their ancestors paid for their pleasures.</p><p>Ursula cannot forget because her body is made through each of her own sacrifices, each of her own choices that ended with her as the sole recipient of a spell that kept her bound to the Sea People's will to give her a torso with arms and a lower body of dark tentacles.</p><p>She was loved once by a king that wanted to give her the same luxuries his people had fought eons for, requested her aid for. It was then that she didn't mind being bound by their laws. Even if the people looked down on her for her shape, for her species, it hadn't mattered when she could not care and the person who she courted loved her for herself. It is after he dies childless due to her own inadequacy, for being the wrong shape, and his brother seized the reigns that she begins to doubt her decision.</p><p>By then it is too late to take back her words, her oath, her contract with no fine print or hidden traps and it is through the seclusion she is forced into that she begins to grow her loathing.</p><p>The darker corners with their absence of comfort whisper poisons of her own failures and it is only time that changes that to her own hatred.</p><p>Ariel is simply a stepping stone in the beginning, a child that has similar ideas to herself from too long ago with the bloodline of a man she despises (and the blood of a man she loved beyond measure).</p><p><em>You could sit her down, explain what she is doing as wrong, as something she would only come to regret</em>, a part of her whispers.</p><p>It is too quiet under the cacophony that the idea of revenge has built, too soft, with no hidden twists or double wording that she has artfully crafted to cause her as minimal harm as possible and so she does not listen.</p><p>And if she writes a contract in warlock's gold, sets it alight with her own magic, choosing cruelty over kindness, it is because that's what the years have let her become.</p><p>Ariel loves a prince out of water, would give up her place in the sea to do so, and Ursula gleefully hands her the pen to watch her write her way out of a future below the waters (watches her make the same mistake she made eons ago with more severe repercussions).</p><p>She takes pleasure in seeing Triton's face contort and tries not to think about the part of her that aches at seeing this little girl so much like herself trip on earth and sand behind a boy that knows not the world of the sea.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I dont know? What this is? I would blame ShanaStoryteller except I've never spoken to her in my lifetime and this is mostly a result of binging all her fairy tale pieces in one go so. Kinda? Eh? <br/>Its a little hand wavery but hey, have at thee I suppose. <br/>Let me know what y'all think?<br/>(Also, stay safe guys and take care of yourselves!)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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